


Midterm Week

by awgaskarth0805



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26609029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awgaskarth0805/pseuds/awgaskarth0805
Summary: Alex is under the weather during midterm week.
Kudos: 2





	Midterm Week

“Dude, I fucking hate midterm week, why do we have to have big exams in the middle of the semester? Aren’t our finals enough?” Jack asked, as he walked back to his dorm with two of his suitemates, Rian and Zack.  
“I guess not. I hate how intense the workload gets in this week of the semester,” Zack replied.  
“I do, too, but it could be worse, we could be Alex right now,” Rian pointed out, making them all laugh some.  
“Rian’s right, it seems like Alex’s midterms have been rough, he’s been staying up until, like, three in the morning every night for the past week. I’m actually a bit worried about him,” Jack explained, as they finally reached their building.   
Once they walked in, they made their way over to the elevator, so they could ride up to the fifth floor.  
“Honestly, same here, it seems like he’s really pushing himself,” Rian replied.   
The ride upstairs was silent after this, and once they got to their floor, they went over to their suite. Jack opened up the door and let them in, and when they walked in, they saw Alex sitting on the couch in the living room.   
He had a thick blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and he was staring at his laptop. Jack could see that he looked very stressed out and exhausted, which only concerned him more.  
“Hey Alex, how’s your studying going?” Zack asked, as the three of them all sat down in the living room.  
“Oh, hey guys, what’s up? I’ve been studying for the same exam for the past two hours, and all of it still makes almost no sense. I started to get a headache from looking at my screen, which has just made it harder to focus,” Alex explained, his voice a bit raspy.  
“Maybe you should take a little break, the fact you made your head hurt so much isn’t good,” Rian replied.  
“Nah, I don’t need to do that, it’s just a headache. Besides, I’ve still got so much to do before I can sleep tonight, so I’d rather just get it all done at this point,” Alex replied, coughing some.  
“Are you sure you can’t just call it a night now? You sound and look like you’re getting sick,” Jack continued.  
“I don’t feel the greatest, but it’s not a big deal, I’ll be okay, since I kind of have to be. It’s midterm week, I don’t have time to sleep off a cold, or whatever this is. Once this week is over, I’ll be able to take better care of myself again. I think I’m gong to go in my room and study for now. You can go in whenever, Jack, I just want to sit at my desk since all of my books are there,”   
Alex grabbed his laptop and blanket, then made his way into the room he shared with Jack.  
“He’s going to burn himself out. Well, more than he already has,” Zack stated, as Rian turned on the TV.  
“You’re probably right about that, dude. I think tomorrow is his last cray busy day, so hopefully he’ll try to get some rest after that,” Jack replied.  
“I hope so. Oh, I meant to tell you guys, I won’t be here after class tomorrow, I’m going home for the weekend,” Rian stated.  
“I am, too. I forgot that tomorrow is already Friday, I meant to mention that earlier in the week,” Zack added.  
“That sounds nice. I guess I’ll be staying here with Alex, and make sure that he takes care of himself and rests this weekend,” Jack replied, as Rian put on a show that they all liked.   
After about an hour, Jack decided that he should go into his room for the night, since he had some work to get done. Also, he wanted to try to encourage Alex to sleep at a reasonable time that night.  
“See you guys in the morning,” Jack said to Rian and Zack, as he got up, and went into his room.   
Alex was sitting at his desk, working on something at his laptop.  
“Hey, dude, how’s the studying going?” Jack asked, taking a seat at his desk.  
“It’s alright. I stopped studying for my Art History exam about twenty minutes ago, and I’ve been trying to look up graduate school programs ever since. I have to turn in some information abut five programs by midnight tonight, and I’ve only gotten one fully done so far,” Alex explained, breaking into a small coughing fit.  
“I see, do you want any help with that? Maybe I can research a couple different programs and find the information you need to turn in for your class,” Jack offered.  
“I appreciate you wanting to help me, but I think this is something that I have to do on my own, since I could end up going to one of these schools in a couple of years,”  
“No problem, is there anything else I can do for you? I just don’t want you to have to stay up super late to do homework again like you’ve been doing all week,”  
“I don’t think I have anything that’s just busywork that you could do for me. Everything I have to do is kind of big, so I really need to do it. I’ll be okay, I can function on just a few hours of sleep,”  
“I know you think you can, but that doesn’t mean that you should. You seem exhausted, and you really don’t sound good,”  
“I’ll be okay, it’s just a cold. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to rest a lot and sleep this shit off this weekend, but I just have too many important things to worry about right now,” Alex explained with a sneeze.  
“If you say so. Hey, Rian and Zack are both going home for the weekend. Maybe since it’ll just be the two of us, we can have a fun, relaxing weekend together here,”  
“That sounds great, but don’t feel like you have to spend the whole weekend with me. If there’s a cool party that you want to go to, don’t let me stop you from going,”  
“I don’t think there’s any good parties this weekend, and I wouldn’t want to go solo anyway,”  
“Oh, okay, sounds good then. Hey, I’d love to keep talking, but I really have to get a lot of shit done, do you mind if we stop this conversation, and I put my headphones in?” Alex asked, already pulling his headphones out of his backpack.  
“Yeah, no worries, man. Good luck with your homework and studying,” Jack replied, opening up an assignment on his computer.   
Over the next couple of hours, the two of them worked on various assignments. As time went on, Jack could tell that Alex’s coughing was getting worse, which worried him some. He hoped that Alex would be able to get a decent amount of sleep that night, since he had a couple of tests and a presentation the next day, but Jack knew that this was unlikely.   
Once it was close to one, Jack decided to call it a night, figuring he could use the weekend to finish up the things he had left to do. Jack packed up his backpack, then quickly got ready to go to sleep. Alex watched Jack crawl into his bead and forced himself to get up and turn off the overhead light and use his desk lamp instead.   
Jack checked a few things on his phone before putting it down and closing his eyes. As he started to drift off, he hoped that Alex would be able to get some rest soon.  
\------------------------  
“I’m so glad that midterms are over now, this midterm week really sucked. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to go home and be with my family,” Rian said as he walked through the aisles of the grocery store right off campus with Zack and Jack.  
“Me too, dude. I’m glad we all came here first, though. I really need some caffeine for the drive home,” Zack replied.  
“It sounds like you guys are going to have nice weekends. Hopefully, Alex will actually rest now that everything is finally over. I didn’t sleep much last night because he kept coughing, and he ended up staying up until almost four,” Jack explained, grabbing some canned soup to take back for Alex.  
“That sounds awful for both of you. I hope he feels better over the weekend,” Zack stated.  
“Same here, that’s why I got all of this stuff. I think I’m ready to go, if you two are,” Jack decided, looking through his basket to make sure he had everything he wanted.   
The three of them went over to the self-checkouts, and quickly purchased everything they got, then they walked out to their cars.  
“I’ll see you guys Sunday night,” Zack said to his friends.  
“You guys be safe driving home,” Jack replied.  
“Will do, good luck with Alex,” Rian added, as the three of them got into their cars.   
Jack listened to his favorite album as he drove back to his dorm. In just minutes he pulled into the parking lot, then grabbed his groceries, before walking in and going up to his floor. He was fairly certain that Alex was done with his classes for the day, since it was pretty late in the afternoon, so he expected to see Alex when he got to the dorm.   
As Jack walked off of the elevator, he searched in his pockets for his key, and found it right as he got to his door. When he walked in, he saw Alex laying on the couch under a blanket, watching something on the TV.  
“Hey Alex, how’re you doing?” Jack asked, setting the groceries down on the counter.   
“Not great, I feel terrible,” Alex replied in a raspier voice.  
“Yeah, I bet. How were your exams and that presentation?”   
Jack took a seat at the end of the couch as Alex sat up some.  
“It was all okay, I guess. My voice sounded just like this during my presentation, so I bet I’m going to get points off for not speaking clearly, since my professor is an asshole like that. My philosophy exam went well, but it was all multiple choice, and we went over all of the questions in class the last time we met. The Art History exam didn’t go so well, though,” Alex explained.  
“Why do you say that?”  
“Well, that’s the stuff I was trying to study last night when I had that killer headache, so I didn’t retain a lot of it. I don’t think I failed, but I definitely didn’t do as well if I would’ve if I didn’t feel so awful,”   
Alex coughed some, then drank the water he had on the coffee table.  
“Well, I’m sure you’ll have other opportunities throughout the semester to boost your grade from whatever it is now. I’m glad you’re done with everything for a bit, so you can just rest and relax this weekend,”  
“I actually have more shit that I should really work on, but I don’t think I’ll be able to focus, since my brain is so annoyingly preoccupied with how bad I’m feeling,”  
“I get what you’re saying, but I think that you really just need to rest for a bit. I know you want to be productive and get a lot done, but just let yourself relax for the weekend. Having a cold doesn’t make you weak, or whatever, it just means that you need some time off from working so hard,” Jack stated.  
“I guess you’re right, I definitely don’t want to overdo it or anything. Thanks for talking some sense into me, man,”   
Alex smiled some in thanks, which Jack returned.  
“No problem, man. I don’t have too much to worry about this weekend, so I’m going to stay here with you, and do what I can to help you feel better. I went to the grocery store right after class and picked up some soup and stuff for you,”  
“Thanks, Jack, I really appreciate that,” Alex said, before coughing more.  
“No problem. Why don’t we go back to watching what you had on earlier, so you can rest your voice some?” Jack suggested.  
“Sounds good, there’s a South Park marathon on right now, if that’s cool with you,”  
“That sounds great, let’s watch it!”   
Alex turned on the TV up some, and they began to watch the episode that had just started. Both of them were glad that they could spend the weekend together if it be spent entirely on the couch.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I got the idea for this from a quote prompt blog!! I've still got quite a few ideas to work with, but please send in requests if you have them!! I love writing what you all want to read, so please send in ideas if you've got them! Thanks for reading, it really means the world. Lots of love, Liv.


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